ArcGIS Enterprise Admin (EAEP) key terms

The web application that hosts maps, apps, and collaboration tools and provides the identity, sharing, and content management layer for the deployment. Users sign in here, and portal membership and roles determine what content and services they can reach.

The installable software component that provides the portal website, sharing model, and built-in identity store. It is one of the four core components and can use built-in accounts or federated identity providers for authentication.

The component that hosts and runs GIS services such as map, feature, geoprocessing, and image services. It exposes REST endpoints, manages service lifecycles, and works with the web adaptor and portal to secure access to those services.

Software that supplies managed data stores for a hosting server, including the relational store for hosted feature layers, the tile cache store for hosted scene layers, and the spatiotemporal big data store for observational data. It registers with the hosting server it supports.

A small web application deployed in a Java or Microsoft servlet container that forwards requests from a friendly URL to portal or ArcGIS Server. It can also enforce web-tier authentication and block direct access to internal component ports.

An ArcGIS Server site that has been federated with the portal and configured with a registered ArcGIS Data Store. It publishes and hosts portal-managed layers, so users can create hosted feature, tile, and scene layers without managing services directly.

The process of connecting an ArcGIS Server site to a portal so the portal becomes the identity provider for that site. After federation, portal accounts and roles govern access to services, and the site can serve as a hosting server.

An external authentication system such as Microsoft Entra ID, LDAP, or SAML-based single sign-on that the portal trusts to verify users. Accounts are managed outside the portal, and group membership can drive role assignment through enterprise groups.

A standards-based protocol for exchanging authentication and authorization assertions between an identity provider and a service provider. In ArcGIS Enterprise it lets the portal accept single sign-on logins from a trusted identity provider without storing user passwords.

The default account repository inside Portal for ArcGIS where user names, passwords, and roles are created and maintained directly. It is suitable for small deployments or testing but is usually replaced or supplemented by an enterprise identity provider at scale.

A licensed individual account that signs in to the portal and consumes an ArcGIS user type with assigned add-on licenses. Named users are how organizations comply with licensing and control access to apps and capabilities.

A licensing classification that sets the baseline capabilities and entitlement level for a named user, such as viewer, editor, or creator tiers. It determines which apps and functions the account can use before add-on licenses are applied.

An optional entitlement assigned to a named user or app that unlocks specific capabilities, such as advanced analysis, geocoding, or a particular extension. Add-ons are separate from the user type baseline and are tracked for compliance.

A signed file issued by the vendor that contains the entitlements and expiration for ArcGIS software. Administrators import it during authorization, and it must be renewed or updated when user counts or add-ons change.

The step of applying a license file to ArcGIS Server, Portal for ArcGIS, or ArcGIS Data Store so the software runs with the purchased entitlements. Without a valid, unexpired authorization, components refuse to start or operate fully.

A set of privileges assigned to portal members that determines what they can do, such as publish content, manage the organization, or administer groups. Custom roles allow fine-grained privilege selection beyond the default role templates.

A single permission within the portal's authorization model, such as creating groups or publishing hosted layers. Privileges are bundled into roles, and administrators can combine them to build custom roles that match job duties.

A portal construct that collects members and content for sharing. Content shared to a group is visible only to its members, and group membership can be synchronized from enterprise groups to simplify administration.

A group in an external identity system that is linked to a portal group so membership is managed automatically. Linking reduces manual effort and keeps access aligned with organizational directory changes.

The audience setting on portal items, such as private, group, organization, or public. It controls who can discover and use an item, and it works together with service-level permissions to protect content.

A record in the portal's content store that represents a map, layer, app, or file, along with its metadata, thumbnail, and sharing settings. Items reference services or data and are the unit of sharing and discovery.

A feature layer whose data is stored and managed by the portal's hosting server and relational data store rather than in an external source. Users can edit it, style it, and share it without administrating the underlying service directly.

The ArcGIS Data Store role that holds the attribute and geometry records for hosted feature layers and supports querying and editing. It is registered with a hosting server and is essential for hosted feature layer functionality.

The ArcGIS Data Store role that stores the tiles generated for hosted scene layers and some cached layers. It allows the portal to serve pre-rendered tiles quickly without rebuilding caches on the fly.

The ArcGIS Data Store role built on an Elasticsearch cluster that stores high-volume observational and tracking data. It supports GeoEvent and big data analysis workflows that need fast time and space queries.

A data source, such as a geodatabase or folder, that an administrator registers with ArcGIS Server so services can reference its data without copying it. Registration enables publishing and lets the server validate data paths.

A REST-accessible endpoint published on ArcGIS Server that delivers maps, features, imagery, or geoprocessing results to clients. Services have capabilities, security settings, and instances that administrators configure and monitor.

A running process on ArcGIS Server that handles requests for a specific service. Administrators set minimum and maximum instance counts to balance responsiveness against memory and CPU consumption.

An authentication mode where a reverse proxy or web server in front of ArcGIS components handles login, often via Windows integrated or certificate-based methods. It shifts credential handling to the web tier instead of the GIS tier.

A server that sits in front of ArcGIS components to terminate TLS, route requests, and optionally authenticate users. It improves security and can provide a single entry point for multiple portal or server machines.

A deployment design that keeps the portal and server available when a machine fails, typically through multiple portal machines behind a load balancer and a highly available data store. It requires shared configuration stores and careful failover testing.

A network device or service that distributes client requests across multiple portal or server machines. It performs health checks and must be configured to preserve sessions and route traffic consistently for the deployment to work.

A saved copy of portal content, server configuration, and data store contents used to restore a deployment after failure or corruption. Regular tested backups are essential because some components cannot be rebuilt from scratch.

A setting that controls how much detail ArcGIS Server and portal components write to logs, from severe errors to verbose debugging. Administrators raise it temporarily to diagnose problems and lower it to control disk usage.

Recorded messages from ArcGIS components that document errors, warnings, and administrative actions. Reviewing logs is a primary troubleshooting step, and they can be exported or aggregated for centralized monitoring.

An ArcGIS Server extension that ingests and processes real-time streaming data from sensors and feeds. It can write observations to the spatiotemporal big data store and publish updated layers for live monitoring.

A login experience where one authentication with an enterprise identity provider grants access to the portal and federated components without re-entering credentials. It depends on trust configured between the identity provider and the portal.

The trusted system that authenticates users and issues assertions about their identity to the portal. Configuring its metadata, certificates, and attribute mappings correctly is required for federated logins to succeed.